Youth for democracy – transparency and good governance in allocating and managing public funds for youth activities by local authorities

Project facts

Project promoter:
Center for Educational Policies (CPE)
Project Number:
RO09-0327
Target groups
Non governmental organisation,
Young adults
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€83,539
Final project cost:
€80,436
From EEA Grants:
€ 72,183
The project is carried out in:
Romania

Description

The project 'Youth for democracy – transparency and good governance in allocating and managing public funds for youth activities, at local authorities’ level', implemented by CPE, in partnership with SAR and CTR, addresses the issue of public authorities inefficiency in allocating and managing public resources for youth, as well as the lack of capacity of NGOs to be involved in these processes. The project is needed due to incoherent legislation and the lack of objective and transparent methodologies for managing public funds for youth. Therefore, the project aims at raising the level of transparency regarding the management of youth resources at local level, and the capacity of youth NGOs to access these funds and get involved in decision making processes. The targeted group are the members of youth NGOs, as well as young people, as indirect beneficiaries). A diagnosis report of the current situation in relation to disbursing public resources for youth at local level, a monitoring report, a set of recommendations for improvement, a consultation report, a watchdog network and 100 trained young people are among the project's main results.

Summary of project results

The project focused on the lack of transparency in the use of financial resources for youth. The need for the project was generated by the public authorities’ lack of interest in supporting youth activities, by the unclear legislation, or by the lack of objective and transparent evaluation criteria of the youth projects, funded through public grants. The project’s objectives were to increase the transparency level in managing public funding for youth projects at a county and local level and to increase young people’s ability and youth NGOs’ capacity to access funds and become involved in decision making processes concerning these funds. As a direct result of the project, a watchdog network was developed with the intent to monitor the way in which the resources for youth have been managed, at the local level. Consequently, a diagnosis report was issued, in order to portrait the status quo of the public resources for youth management, available at the national level. The major impact of these actions consisted in involving and mobilising over 100 youth NGOs in obtaining public funding for youth at a local level, and also in increasing the amount of public funding with over 500,000 Euro at the local level and almost 250,000 Euro at county level, practically doubling the existing amount available through the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Another important result is the good practice guide concerning the involvement of NGOs in the good governance of youth funding at the local level, which was sent to the county and local councils - a tool for public workers to responsibly deal with the management of youth funding. In the same time, the guide is also addressed to youth NGOs, with the purpose of contributing to an increase in the level of involvement in decision making processes, and of encouraging a proactive behaviour, as far as decision making processes and public policy making is concerned. Also, a diagnosis was undertaken concerning the way public authorities allocated and managed funds for youth projects. The project also managed to increase the capacity of over 100 youth NGOs to access public funds and become involved in decision making processes, by training around 200 young people. The online platform developed in the project - http://tineripentrudemocratie.cpedu.ro - is another useful tool for those who want to get involved in the domain.

Summary of bilateral results